Content With Loneliness

13.Punching Bag

Brian’s POV-

The guys and I watched in amusement, laughing as Jimmy tormented Johnny while we took a break from recording. No matter how old we got, Johnny would probably never catch a break. Especially when being around Jimmy. It was all in good fun though, Johnny had grown used to it considering he’s been dealing with it ever since he joined the band. And even back then he handled it well. He would usually just laugh right along with us.

I stopped paying attention to what now turned into a slap boxing match between my drummer and bassist, as my phone began ringing. It was a bit of surprise to see that it was Marissa calling me. Although we had each other’s numbers for a while, we never really called or texted unless it was about Cassidy which was a rare occasion. Other than that we only really talked when we were all hanging out.

Putting my cigarette out, I answered the call with a simple hello.

“Hey Brian, are you busy?” Marissa asked sounding rather anxious.

“Uh… I’m at the studio with the guys right now. Why, what’s up?”

She groaned at my response, mumbling a curse.

“Is something wrong?” I asked.

“Yeah… It’s Cassidy.” She answered hesitantly.

“What happened?” My thoughts started running wild about what could have possibly happened to her.

“Her dad died yesterday morning. He had a heart attack.”

My heart nearly dropped to my stomach at the news. I knew she had a close relationship with her dad, she would talk about him pretty often whenever we hung out. She had to be heart broken and I suddenly felt like an asshole for being too busy with the album that I barely had time to get in touch with her. It had to have been a couple days since we had last talked.

“Brian? Are you still with me?” Marissa pulled me from thoughts of mentally beating myself.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m still here.” I assured her. “What can I do?”

“Well Cassidy, being the pain in the ass that she has to be, decided to go to work today. I guess to try to keep her mind off things. But one of her co-workers just called me to tell me that she needs to be picked up because he boss is making her take a few days off. But I’m stuck in work and so are the girls so do you think you can go pick her up? I don’t want her driving while she’s a complete mess.”

“Yeah of course.” I quickly got to my feet, stuffing my pack of smokes and lighter into my pocket and grabbed my keys.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I’m on my way. I’ll talk to you later.” Before she could say another word I hung up and slipped my phone back in my pocket.

“Where are you going?” Matt asked as soon as I hung up.

I quickly explained the situation to them, knowing that they would understand and be okay with me leaving. As soon as I got their blessings to go, I was speeding to Cassidy’s work, cursing myself the entire way for not being there for her yesterday.

When I got there Cassidy was sitting outside with a pair of sun glasses covering her eyes. She quickly recognized my car and got in silently.

“Cas, I’m so-“

“Please don’t.” She held up her hand, signaling for me to stop before sliding off her glasses. “I just don’t want to talk about it.” She turned her face towards the window to avoid me seeing her as her voice cracked at the end of her sentence.